by Seth Eden
United Against the Vampyren
Dark Vampire Romance
Seth Eden
Contents
Join The Tribe
Also by Seth Eden
1. Tess
2. Kal
3. Tess
4. Kal
5. Tess
6. Kal
7. Tess
8. Kal
9. Tess
10. Kal
Epilogue
1. Tess
2. Kal
3. Tess
4. Kal
A Message To My Readers
Other Books By The Author
© Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.
It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental.
Created with Vellum
Join The Tribe
Want to connect with Seth and join a thriving community of PNR readers? If so, then join Seth Eden’s Reader Group on Facebook! You’ll also get the latest news and updates on the Vampyren Invaders series and all of Seth’s future books.
See you there! Click on the link below and request to join:
http://bit.ly/SethEdenGroup
Also by Seth Eden
Download the FREE prequel to the Vampyren series – Arrival of the Vampyren:
The Vampyren invaded Earth, coming from the places between the stars. They came to slake their most brutal appetites: For blood. For sex. For conquest. Within weeks their superior strength, technology and weapons turned Earth into a fallen battleground.
But love can blossom in the most unlikely places.
Stephanie was looking for food, for safety, and for her brother when the Vampyren patrol caught her on the blown-up streets of Las Vegas.
Dray Fierro was one of the Vampyren, a hero who could take his pick of women to claim as his war prize. He wasn't looking for more than a woman to satisfy his needs for sex and blood.
Neither was prepared for what they got.
Click here to claim your FREE book: http://bit.ly/ArrivalSethE
Synopsis
It’s dangerous to be in love with him.
But there’s nothing that could tear us apart.
Not even the Vampyren military government.
There’s no place for emotions and childbearing in this new reality.
Kal is my destiny.
He will not only be the father of my child.
But we’ll also fight together.
Become leaders of the new movement.
This is much bigger than either of us.
Our love is dependent on this victory.
Can we defeat the evil forces and become a family?
1
Tess
It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic, Tess thought for possibly the hundredth time.
The wooden crate had holes for breathing but that wasn’t saying much. She could hardly move a muscle. The truck jostled her and her box slid a little, knocking into another wooden crate. That crate did not have anyone in it, as far as Tess knew. It was likely full of rice or beans or maybe one of those barrels of ice and fish. The fishing industry was picking up again on the coasts. The truck went over a bump in the road and Tess hit her head on the top of the crate, wincing.
Tess had not intended to become a fugitive. But the law had become stupid and brutal and given way to atrocity after atrocity. Unlike a lot of humans, she didn’t care who was committing the atrocities, she just cared that they were being done, and against children to boot. It didn’t matter to her if the perpetrators were human or Vampyren or fucking elephants. They were assholes.
The first time Tess freed children from one of the Vampyren’s creches, it had been by accident.
The children had been let out of their compound for some outside time. Because of her, she supposed, some creches had wised up and now children got less outside time. But that day, she’d just been walking by and saw the kids, all underfed and filthy, playing on the expanse of pavement that was a sorry excuse for a playground. They were locked in from the outside by a gate with a simple latch. But the nearest guard was ten yards away and had turned his head to talk to another guard. They weren’t paying attention. No matter how secure you thought you were, no matter how many locks and guards you put on any person or location or item, given enough time, somebody was bound to get lazy. Tess saw the children through the bars of the gate. She’d been on foot, having fled a dangerous neighborhood where she had to bust out the pepper spray on her own kind one too many times.
It had been a shock in the beginning, when the Vampyren had begun to breed with human women (by force) in order to reproduce, even the offspring would only be half Vampyr. But when they began taking older children orphaned from the war to keep them in creches for future “use,” somehow that shook Tess up even more. They were harvesting humanity however they could. Some children would be feeders, the girls would be breeders… She supposed they might have other ideas for future “use” as well. The Vampyren were brutal in their utilitarian view of humans but to involve children in it...
What struck her about the kids that day was how quiet they were even when they were playing. They were outside and they were small. They should have been laughing and shrieking. They weren’t. It was as if they’d been muted. She’d looked through the bars and saw one particularly skinny kid who wasn’t playing like the others. His clothes were gray with dirt and Tess could smell him from ten feet away. That was all it took. She hadn’t thought about it. She just walked up to the gate and unlatched it, silently swinging the gate open. The kid looked straight at her and she’d held a finger to her lips and nodded at the road.
Some of the kids had been caught again but twelve escaped that day, fleeing into the shadows before the matrons or the guards could catch them.
That was the first time Tess had freed children. Now it was her favorite pastime. You could almost have called it her religion.
Two hundred freed kids later, she was hiding inside a wooden crate, a supply truck, smuggling her from Cleveland to Chicago. It was the most uncomfortable trip of her life, and that included a road trip she’d taken with her brothers and sisters from Columbus to the Grand Canyon when she was ten, all of them piled into a station wagon.
Tess was the oldest of six. She knew that two of her sisters were dead and one brother was probably dead. The other three were lost to the abyss of the new Vampyren order, maybe getting bled on the daily or just getting by somewhere. She’d given up looking for them, it only served to keep breaking her heart. Now her life’s work was freeing kids. Because that was what she had always done since she’d been eight-years-old. She looked after the young ones. Why stop now?
“Ow.” She’d bumped her head against and she hissed in pain. Somehow she had managed not to completely lose her mind on this seemingly endless ride. But if it went on for much longer, she suspected she might not hold on.
Even as that thought crossed her mind, the truck was slowing to a stop.
“Oh, yes please,” Tess murmured. She shut her eyes and prayed. She really didn’t believe in any higher power in particular, so there was no telling where she thought her prayers were going. She felt the all too familiar rumble of the truck’s engine stop and she closed her eyes, just breathing and hoping. She hadn’t
eaten in a day and she had a little bottle of water that she could drink from albeit while hunched down very awkwardly. But she’d had to pee two hours ago, so she hadn’t sipped any water in a long time. Her knees hurt from kneeling for so long before she’d changed positions and sat sideways with her head turned at an awkward angle.
She heard the doors to the truck blow open. It could be another checkpoint, she thought. There had been several checkpoints on the drive and those were only the official ones. The truck had also been stopped a few times by Vampyrens and humans intending to loot the merchandise until they realized it was just fish. Luckily, nobody demanded the driver bust open her crate. He’d hidden her well. The driver was a member of the resistance. Tess thought he should be sainted.. .even if he was responsible for her continued discomfort.
“We’re here,” the driver said gruffly as Tess heard him climb up into the truck’s cab. Tess wasn’t one to cry, but she nearly did now when she heard him hammering a crowbar into the seam of the crate before he broke it open from the top and bottom, the wooden slats falling apart around her. “C’mon, lemme help ya out.”
The driver took her gently by her arms and Tess grunted as she crawled out onto the bed of the truck’s cab, her aching muscles protesting as they finally changed position. She half rolled and half crawled out of the truck and stumbled to her feet, sighing in relief, wobbly on her legs. She smiled wearily at the driver. He was an older guy with a big bushy beard and he was very matter-of-fact about the work he did for the resistance as if it were all just a job.
“There’s a bathroom in this warehouse,” he said, leading her through the open double doors of a big abandoned building that sat in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Tess had never been to Chicago, but this didn’t look like what she’d pictured, the warehouse surrounded by empty land, a long shuttered gas station the nearest building several blocks away. “They left some food and water for you too. Your ride to Urbana will be here in a couple of hours probably.”
“Okay,” Tess said, her voice raspy. “Thank you.”
“Thanks for all the work you do,” the driver said with a curt nod, and he shook her hand. “I’ll see ya in the next life, huh?”
“See ya,” Tess said, nodding.
The truck was gone inside a minute and that was that. It was strange to have spent so long with a person and to say goodbye so casually. Not that the two of them had exactly been chatty on the road. Now Tess took a deep breath and spent a few minutes just stretching and walking around, rolling her neck and thanking her lucky stars she hadn’t cramped up too badly. She found the bathroom and that relief was nearly transcendent. The warehouse was big and dimly lit and empty. It was cold outside, but winter was thawing into spring. Tess found the food and water she’d been left. The energy bar was chalky and tasted like chemicals and cardboard, but Tess ate it happily and guzzled some water. She never sat down, having been still too long, instead she paced the place and muttered to herself in an endless and insignificant dialogue.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed, but it didn’t seem like too long before a black SUV was pulling up in front of the warehouse. Tess found a shadow to hide in, just in case it wasn’t her ride but some nefarious person. She had been given a codeword to use with her ride, to ensure she didn’t get in a car with the wrong person
The driver was supposed to mention wildflowers blooming. That was a strange thing for anyone to mention, so it would make them obvious. Tess couldn’t see a flower of any kind growing anywhere.
Tess stayed back. She was of average height and a little wiry in build. She’d cut her black hair into a short pixie cut for the sake of convenience. She had more fight in her than anyone liked to give her credit for, even when they were on her side, but when she saw the Vampyren man get out of the SUV she breathed in, nerves making her heart race. She knew that there were Vampyrens in the resistance now. But she had not expected this.
“Tess Ford?” The Vampyren’s voice echoed in the warehouse.
He was wearing human clothes. It was like seeing a dog wear a suit. He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, his tribal tats visible around his arms, his thick black braid falling to his waist. He had a goatee, and he was about 6’5” at least, broad and muscular like the rest of them. He was wearing Converse sneakers and Tess almost laughed out loud and stepped out of the shadows. If this guy wasn’t resistance, she had to at least compliment his cover.
“Hello…” Tess clenched her fists at her side. She had no weapons which seemed like an oversight but she never would have had a chance anyway against this guy.
“Do you happen to know if the wildflowers are in bloom?” The Vampyren said. He was smirking slightly, the corner of his mouth turned up as he regarded her.
Tess’s shoulders relaxed a little. All she had to do was mention spring now and that would be the sign.
“They’ll bloom more come spring,” she said.
“I’m Kal,” the Vampyren said, walking to meet here. The winter sunlight was harsh even on this overcast day but then Tess had been hiding out in the dark warehouse and now she squinted as she walked out to meet him halfway. “I’m taking you to Urbana.”
“Shoot, I was hoping for Disneyland,” Tess cracked. She shook his hand, and he cocked his head, looking rather adorably baffled. Maybe that was because confused was a funny expression for a Vampyren. “What’s Disneyland?”
“Nevermind,” Tess said, chuckling. “Let’s go.”
Tess actually groaned with pleasure as she sank into the plush leather seat on the passenger side of the shiny, black luxury SUV. These Vampyren were starting to learn about cars, she supposed. Kal climbed into the driver’s seat and reached into a small cooler in the back, handing her a chilled bottle of water.
“Thanks,” Tess murmured, though she was no longer thirsty, but starving.
There were human businesses popping up again more and more often. Everything was pretty unregulated. You ate meat these days with your fingers crossed and you only ate it well done. But as Kal sped down the highway, it made her hopeful seeing simple pop-ups along the road where lines of people waited to buy tacos or burgers. It was heartening to see stores opening up though they were mostly based on bartering systems. It was the beginning of a new world in place of the old.
“Are you coming from Urbana?” Tess said, relaxing back in her seat.
“No, I’m coming from Chicago,” Kal said. “Got involved with the resistance there after I deserted my unit? But then I found out my brother’s been hanging around Urbana. Think he’s got a human girlfriend there.”
Tess blurted a laugh and Kal looked at her funny. She just shook her head. “You sound like a human. And you dress like one. Really assimilated, huh?”
“I’ve never really been happy as a Vampyren anyway,” Kal muttered. “So why not?”
“Interesting,” Tess murmured. She’d never met one of them who talked this way before. Even knowing they were joining up with humans in some attempt at solidarity within the resistance, it was strange to be up close to a Vampyren who was so different.
“When did you join the resistance?” Tess said.
“Just a year ago,” he said, his eyes narrowed on the road. “But I left my unit a long time before that. For a while I was just...getting by, hiding out. Keeping to myself.”
“Why did you leave your unit?”
“I saw a breeding pit for the first time,” he said darkly.
“Huh.” Tess nodded. “Man. You are different.”
He was good looking too. Although, his face was longer and less chiseled than a lot of Vampyren. He had a quiet look about him. She wondered if he’d always been the quiet, thoughtful type when he was younger. On Vampyren that probably didn’t win you many brownie points. Now he squirmed under her gaze but wouldn’t look at her.
“Urbana was a breeding pit and a creche,” he said now, his voice taking the tone of a lecture. “It had the highest birth rate of any breeding pit in this region of the country. Bu
t after the battle of Urbana, they moved the children. The women are still living there though.”
“They moved the children?” Tess sat up straight and now she looked away, scoffing.
Perfect.
The entire reason she was going to Urbana was to organize the liberation of the children from their creche, taking them to a secret location run by the resistance.
“Yeah,” Kal said. “But we know where they are. The Council doesn’t trust the leadership in Urbana. With good reason, obviously.”
Well, at least the resistance knew where the kids were, she supposed. But this made things more complicated.
“And the women?” She said now, stretching her arms over her head.
“They’re still…” Kal shifted around in his seat. The guy was really restless, she thought. “It still functions for breeding. But it’s not like the other pits really. It’s—"
“More brothel style,” Tess said dryly.
“I guess so.”
She made a face and drank some water. That was better than a pit, but it still disgusted her. Were the women willing and paid sex workers, that would be one thing. But they were more like sex slaves, recruited against their will by the Council and Vampyren military leadership. The whole thing was yet another atrocity.
“Okay,” Tess said, sighing. “Well, I hope the food is good.”
The Urbana campus looked pretty even in the somewhat grungy gray light of late winter. The snow had thawed, and the grass was poking through. She could tell it must be really pretty in bloom during spring or in autumn. They hadn’t talked much on the ride over since Tess had fallen asleep, too comfy in her seat. But now she moaned and stretched, the SUV pulling into a prime spot by the quad between two of the dorm buildings. Kal was looking at her kind of funny and she blushed, running a hand through her short hair. She was wearing the same jeans, t-shirt, and a jacket that she’d been wearing for days. She had no bag and no things, only the clothes on her back since she’d been forced to drop everything and just go. The resistance tended to provide for his own so she was hoping there would be some generosity to spare.
