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  Half Blood

  The Alyx Riddle Chronicles

  Book One

  Alijah Sawyer

  Copyright © 2019 Alijah Sawyer

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or 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 the book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places 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.

  Cover Artist

  Natasha Snow Designs

  www.natashasnowdesigns.com

  ~~~

  Editor

  Jade Hemming

  www.jadewritesbooks.wordpress.com

  ~~~

  Don’t forget to join my Mailing List and like my Facebook Page to find out about freebies, new releases, promotions, special sneak peeks and any craziness I decide to pull out my bag. Thank you so much for reading this book and I truly hope you enjoy it!

  CONTENTS

  Mailing List

  About the Author

  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

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Alijah Sawyer is an Army Veteran turned nurse whose love for paranormal romance blossomed during her long tours away from her family. Now, a new mom who has embarked on a journey to share her passion for all things weird and sexy with others.

  Find me on Facebook and Twitter

  For Susan

  A ferocious fighter until the end. Continue to kick ass, wherever you are.

  Chapter One

  Alyxandra

  Outside the rickety wooden window, the still of the night mesmerized Alyx as she gazed out onto the manicured lawn of the Asylum. Slammed with the crisp earthy smell of fall, Alyx took a deep breath and tried to exhale her stress away. She reached up to push the heavy window open further, letting more of the cool breeze into the tiny office.

  “Alyx, did you check on Susan after she got her meds?” Carmen asked as she waddled to her desk and sat down. She exhaled deeply before reaching for the bottom cabinet drawer where she kept her bonbons and Mr. Goodbars. Alyx dreaded these shifts with Carmen, and it wasn’t because she didn’t share.

  “No, but I’ll head down after I finish initialing this book,” Alyx said, avoiding eye contact. Carmen knew damn well that it was her responsibility and that’s why she got paid the big nursing bucks. But it never stopped her from pawning off her responsibilities on Alyx and the other drudges of the Blakemore Asylum.

  “Like we don’t have enough on our hands already,” Alyx muttered to herself. She turned the page and started on a new patient’s chart, trying to rush as she went down the columns checking off the tasks she completed. It was near the end of her shift and she had to get a head start on her books if she was ever going to get out on time.

  “Please go now!” Carmen said sharply without turning away from her computer.

  Alyx looked up and saw her logging into an online store where most of the merchandise cost more than her rent.

  “You have two perfectly damn good feet!” Alyx replied, rolling her eyes. She wasn’t up for dealing with Carmen’s demands.

  Especially if she was going to sit on her ass and shop, Alyx thought.

  “Come on Alyx. I put her on hourly checks after that shit she did in the dining room and I wanna make sure she’s not getting into another mess. Plus she likes you,” Carmen pleaded after stuffing her mouth with a powdery treat. Crumbs falling all over her keyboard and desk.

  “Fine,” Alyx grunted and shook her head.

  Grabbing her keys and patting her pockets to make sure she had both work phones, Alyx walked out of the tiny glass office the patients called Pandora’s Box. She walked down the faded teal hallways toward the elevators that divided the west and east wings of the Asylum. Normally Alyx would have told Carmen where she should go shove her request, but Alyx thought of her snug little chair in the break room that was calling her name instead. Leaving Carmen to deal with the last round of checks suddenly seemed more appealing.

  Alyx was drained. Physically and mentally drained. Working as an underpaid mental health specialist, or drudge as she called herself, in a psychiatric hospital was wearing on her big time. Her regular paycheck barely covered her monthly expenses, so she always picked up shifts whenever her boss asked. She was determined to make it on her own without her adoptive parents’ help.

  Even so, that night she was feeling extra tired after all the running around she did on the ward. Almost every patient on the floor decided to echolocate across the TV room at each other after watching a documentary on how whales communicate.

  Alyx prayed they would fire the new activities girl or whoever decided that watching a documentary on whales was a rousing activity for the mentally ill. The rest of the patients seemed determined to get out of there. They were opening random doors setting the alarm off at least once an hour. Nights like these used to stress her out, but Alyx knew the work she did mattered.

  They were short staffed that night so Alyx found herself with more patients to monitor. Floating between two floors with half of them on hourly checks. In some delusional upper manager’s mind a shift like this was doable. But at the end of the day, she did her best as always. Someone had to take care of the insane.

  The health bracelet Alyx wore had her clocking in at 11,371 steps for the day and she had a few more hours of work to go. She knew she would easily hit 50,000 steps for a four day work week. Actually more since she picked up some weekend shifts. Alyx had no life outside of her work. And because of that, she got her meals, workouts, and meaningful social interactions all during her ten hour shifts. Which also meant she hadn’t been in a serious relationship in over three years. She was sadly married to her job at the ripe young age of twenty-four.

  Alyx thought she was slightly above average in the looks department. She was thick in all the right places from running after patients in the Asylum. She had a little pouch from munching on snacks from Carmen’s drawer, but Alyx had always been told she had a cute face. And of course there was her wild hair. It had a life of its own and she had long stopped trying to manipulate it into painful styles.

  Alyx reached the double elevators, pressed the down button and waited. She had just gotten off her feet when Carmen pulled her superiority card demanding she check on Susan. And even though she hated going down to the basement, Susan was worth it.

  The basement of the Asylum looked like it was right out of an episode from one of those dark and ominous TV shows. Dingy walls, fluorescent bulbs, the works. But it was the smell that got to Alyx. No amount of bleach or ammonia could quite erase the sickeningly sweet stench of death from the basement. The p
atients who were brought down there hardly had any visitors, and with few outside eyes, it was the perfect place for the confinement of the more challenging ones. The patients the state had conveniently forgotten. Rumors circulating around the hospital made Alyx scared to step foot in Dr. Winston Higgins Ward. The silver haired doctor didn’t appear to have all his marbles in his jar, Susan had once said.

  Nevertheless, Alyx could tell he believed he was making a difference in the patients’ lives, so in her book he was alright. The other drudges and a few nurses liked to spread gossip around the hospital about him, saying he was in his own little universe thinking he can heal the mentally ill with his unorthodox treatments. Those lot usually avoided working on his team.

  So that left Alyx with Carmen.

  Alyx never knew what brought Carmen to Pearl. And she surely didn’t fit in with the ‘normal’ people who walked the streets. Carmen always had some type of snack going in her mouth, but she resembled a model from a fashion show in Paris. She constantly complained about the boring little town, yet like the rest of them didn’t have any plans of going anywhere. Carmen was one of those nurses Alyx couldn’t understand why they got into nursing in the first place. She came off like she didn’t give a shit about the patients or her job. And half the time, Alyx was the one taking care of all the mistakes she’d made. They had been working together the last four nights and since then Carmen added five patients to hourly checks and had one in a bed restraint for most of Alyx’s last shift. Carmen treated the patients like crap and everyone knew it. She only showed up to collect her paycheck.

  Carmen had expertly manufactured a happy atmosphere for when the directors did their monthly stroll to observe the patients’ progress. It was all smiles and laughs with them dosed up on their as needed Ativan or whatever medication Dr. Higgins had prescribed. And poor Susan was her latest victim. Susan had been restrained as soon as dinner started. Over a piece of chocolate cake. Everyone knew she had to have her cake before the main course but for some reason the server wanted to play by his own rules that night.

  The elevator’s diminished ding snapped Alyx back to the present. She entered the code for the basement and a few seconds later with a rocky stop she was deep in the oldest parts of the Asylum. Alyx pulled out her flashlight and walked down the hallway. The flickering lights above had her on alert as she quickly made her way to Susan’s temporary room.

  Susan didn’t deserve this, especially since her room was upstairs with the low risk patients. Alyx had reported the first time she’d seen Carmen’s mistreatment. But nothing happened. The second time she noticed the stares from her co-workers. The third time got her brought up to the director’s office to talk about professionalism in a field like theirs. Whatever the hell that meant.

  Eventually Alyx got the hint. So she kept to herself and tried to bring a little humanity to the few patients she could. Even if it lasted but a few days before they relapsed, it meant everything to her and showed some improvement. At least in her eyes it did. Painting the ladies’ nails or styling their hair made them feel a part of a community and that warmed Alyx’s heart.

  Susan was the first patient Alyx had bonded with when she was hired. Mostly because she was in and out the Asylum and Alyx was the intake coordinator. Susan always spent a month or so with her adult children then conveniently seemed to have a psychotic break that landed her back inside. The doctors had yet to find her trigger, so it was back and forth for the past two years. Susan was a small elderly Asian woman who swore up and down Alyx was her granddaughter. One time they had painted a picture together, and the brown paint Alyx had used for herself didn’t stir Susan away from the love she said she felt in her heart for Alyx.

  So to see her get drugged up more than she already was for slapping a server didn’t sit well with Alyx. The server probably didn’t deserve the slap, but he also should have seen it coming for not giving Susan her cake. Word about the slap got back to Carmen, which landed Susan down in the basement with the ‘crazies’.

  Alyx turned the corner and was hit with the strong smell of death again. She covered her nose with her sleeve and walked towards the last door on the left. This shit has to be illegal, she thought and wondered if the other patients who lived down there had daily recreational time outside the foul basement.

  Suddenly she felt the hairs on the nape of her neck stand up and an uneasy feeling washed over her. The sound of her footsteps echoed behind her, along with a low growl she couldn’t place.

  It had to be the furnace, Alyx thought. She took a deep breath remembering that the hospital was well over a hundred years old, it had to be the furnace.

  Slowly glancing behind her and finding nothing but an empty hallway, Alyx continued down the path. She wondered if Susan had broken out of the restraints and was roaming the halls. Since that was something she had a knack of doing when placed in them. Susan was also their in-house Houdini and prankster. Always finding herself in some kind of mischief. Alyx smiled remembering how Susan had gotten into Carmen’s snack drawer, giving all her friends sweet treats. Carmen’s facial expression was priceless when she found it empty with a bunch of patients on a so called sugar rush. Carmen was somehow more concerned with her missing snacks than the fact that the patients had gotten into the nursing station.

  Alyx suddenly heard the sound again, and this time she was positive it sounded like an animal. The basement creeped her out, especially at night. But she pulled on the last few bits of courage she had and practically ran towards Susan’s room. Her heart had started beating rapidly in her chest.

  Using the keycard to unlock the room, Alyx quietly slid inside, pushing the door closed behind her. The room was eerily dark, with only the faint light from the moon peering through the window. Alyx could make out the silhouette of a somber sleeping Susan in bed. But the sigh of relief faded as she suddenly realized the key card wasn’t in her hand anymore. She quietly checked her pockets and did a 360 degree turn, scanning the floors in case she dropped it, but she couldn’t see it anywhere.

  “What the hell?”

  Her eyes went back to the bed as Susan suddenly sat up, her wrist restraints falling to the ground. Before Alyx could even get a word out, Susan rushed her and pinned her against the door, her face pressed up against the small glass opening.

  “My sweet pea, so glad you came to check on me. I knew you would. We mustn’t waste any time. Look across the hall. Tell me what do you see?” Susan asked holding Alyx’s arms out to the sides.

  This crazy little old woman had some strength to her. Alyx thought.

  “Susan, please let me go,” Alyx demanded calmly. She was doing her best not to overreact and let the situation get out of control. The last thing Alyx needed was more paperwork when she was due to get outta work.

  “Don’t you hear me Alyxandra? Look! What do you see?” she asked again, more sternly.

  Alyx tried her best to wiggle free but she was stuck. Susan was barely over 100 pounds yet she held Alyx against the door as if she was a linebacker pushing his opponent across the football field.

  Deciding that playing along with Susan’s game might be her best option, Alyx stared out the small window and saw a similar door across the shadowy hall. Her vision became blurry and her eyes burned before focusing on the door. Alyx silently cursed herself for forgetting her eye drops at home as her eyes felt as if they were on fire.

  Once her vision cleared, Alyx saw Dr. Higgins and another man standing over the bed of the new patient she had helped admit the night before.

  Why was he here so late? she wondered.

  “What are they saying?” Susan asked from behind her.

  “Susan, you’re hurting my arm,” Alyx protested.

  “Listen Alyxandra. What do you hear?”

  Alyx racked her brain trying to figure out how she was going to get herself out of this situation. She contemplated yelling for help as she looked through the glass window again at Dr. Higgins. He should hear her and come to help. But before
she could utter her next words, Alyx realized she was actually seeing through the door and not just through the glass opening.

  “How in the hell is this happening?”

  She saw the ink stain on Dr. Higgins’s lab coat and the penlight he often twirled between his fingers after examining a patient. There was no way she should have been able to see him so clearly, as if he was standing before her, with no door obstructing her view. Alyx looked away, convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her. But curiosity got the best of her, and she focused back on the two men in the opposite room as their voices suddenly exploded in her head.

  Did they say where they found him? Dr. Higgins asked the younger man.

  Alyx couldn’t see his face, only the long black coat and a bald head covered with an elaborate tattoo that traveled down his neck.

  A mile outside the compound. No one knows how he got past the barriers.

  A witch must have helped him. Look at his eyes, see the fixed pupils. Dr. Higgins said while holding the patient’s eyelids open. If you look a little closer, you can see the storm within. He’s fighting an internal battle he will not overcome.

  He kept saying the same thing over and over until this happened. The dark stranger said, his voice flat and detached. What about the Faes? Could they have sent him?

  Alyx didn’t remember anything being off with the new patient. He was unresponsive to verbal and physical stimuli. Sure. Just stared blankly off into space. Probably sedated for the transfer over to the Asylum.

  It must have been some incantation. His stringent form seems familiar. A spell your kind had once practiced if ever captured by the enemy. There’s no way we can find out why he risked his life coming here. Only the witches can undo this, and it’s obvious he knew of the consequences he took by enacting this spell. The Fae were once able to summon this amount of energy to cast spells, but not anymore. This has to be the witches’ doing.

  Wait a sec Higgins. Did you say spell? No offense, oh wise one. But why do you keep insisting that we made love potions and healing elixirs! We never prayed to any god, the younger man said with a loud huff. He walked away from the bed and started pacing by the door, clearly annoyed.