United Against The Vampyren: Dark Vampire Romance

by Seth Eden

  Kal growled, but instead of jumping to his feet, he rolled over and swung his sword without bothering to look at who was behind him. He’d guessed right, and now a Lucian was disemboweled with his one, sure swing. It fell into the sand, screaming, its guts spilling out and writhing on the ground.

  Shots rang out and the humans ducked as a Lucian jerked, stunned by the force of the bullets riddling its body. Tess was stone-faced as she stared over the barrel of the handgun he’d left at her side. Of course, she hadn’t stayed in her tent. Typical Tess, Kal thought. The Lucian didn’t die but it seemed both baffled and astonished by the gunshot wounds now oozing a dark, black substance and Loren took the opportunity to slice its head off in the second it he gave him.

  Kal heard Mark shout and in no time, Kal was on his feet, running through the sand that made it feel as if he were moving in slow motion. A Lucian was swinging its serrated blade and Mark had been disarmed.

  I won’t get there in time, he thought. It was strange to him how clear and matter-of-fact the thought was, even as his heart felt as if it were dropping down to his feet because his brother was about to have his head removed from his body.

  With a thunderous roar and that came from deep within him, Kal threw his sword and watched it flip through the air, end over end, before plunging into the back of the Lucian, throwing it to the ground. Then it was Mark and Kalen in a wrestling match with the Lucian. They were stronger than they looked, being lankier and much wirier than the Vampyren. The tide was rising and the three figures tumbled into the water and it took the strength of both Mark and Kal to shove the thing face-first into the sea. It choked and resisted and the two of them held it down, keeping its face beneath the waves as it drowned. When the creature had been completely still for a while, they struggled to their feet.

  There was only one left and it was pissed. All eight of them plunged into the fight and the thing gave them a run for it, moving so fast that it made Kal dizzy as it blurred and spun around him. Danton accidentally cut close enough to slice through Alek’s earlobe, as the four of them were clustered together. But eventually, Loren hit on the winning kill shot, shouting as he cut the Lucian down the middle of his belly before kicking it into the shore next to its drowned companion.

  When it was over, there were four dead Lucians and it had taken four Vampyren and four humans to take them down.

  Kal came to his senses and then he was shouting, “Tess!” She came running, and the other couples followed suit, finding each other on the beach. Tess came to him and he picked her up in his arms, shutting his eyes as she wrapped her legs around him.

  “Good shooting,” he said.

  “Why? It didn’t kill them,” Tess said, sounding quite shaken.

  He squeezed her a little tighter, wishing he could protect from even the sight of this war that never seemed to end, that his people had begun and now only seemed to regret.

  “It stunned them,” Kal said, smoothing back her hair. He tipped her chin up and pecked a kiss to her lips. “It stunned the hell out of them. We didn’t know guns did that to Lucian. That’s important. You’re so brave, baby.”

  “You don’t let anything happen to me,” Tess said fiercely. “I don’t let anything happen to you either. You can’t expect me to just stay in the tent, pregnant or not.”

  “I’ll tell you a secret,” Kal said, smiling into the soft skin of his mate’s neck, and pressing a kiss to the bite marks he’d left there, now scarred over. “I really didn’t expect you to stay in the tent.”

  “Well, let’s get going then,” Crystal said, stretching. They had bandaged each other up, packed up the tents, and eaten breakfast, all of them agreeing they needed to get to Los Angeles as quickly as possible now. There was no time to lose and every second they spent in Lucian territory was a second too long.

  “Are you sure you don’t need to rest anymore?” Kal said to Tess. He took her hand and she walked beside him.

  “Listen, I might be pregnant but it’s your kid,” Tess said, as they walked along the wet sand, the tide rising to meet their sneakers. “And your kid is tough.”

  “Our kid is tough,” Kal said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about humans, is that you have a very shared view of parenthood. The father is just as important as the mother.”

  Tess raised her eyebrows at that but she didn’t ask any questions about Vampyren parenthood. He suspected that thinking about it made her a little sad, as she took care of so many children. It wasn’t sad to him, it was merely the way it was. He and his brother had not been particularly close to their father, now long dead. Their mother had been fierce and mostly silent. They were of a generation that had been grateful just to survive and opted to conquer another planet to keep surviving. The notion of something like fatherhood had never seemed important. But now it seemed like something he desperately wanted; a family, a home, and the affection and warmth of a good woman. The best woman. His mate.

  They walked up into town for a long time and then found an exit down to another beach where they hiked along the shore and it wasn’t so bad, except for the constant threat of the Lucian that lurked; a tension between them all that had them constantly looking over their shoulders, the couples squeezing each other’s hands as they made their way toward Los Angeles. Eventually, Loren had said, they would find a vehicle or a ride. There were pockets of people everywhere and they were usually willing to help. That had been another shocking thing to the Vampyren once they’d been forced to learn something about humanity beyond brutality; they helped each other when they didn’t need to.

  It was after two and overly warm, even for the beach, when Kal suggested they stop.

  Tess wasn’t fooled and pursed her lips. “I’m fine,” she hissed.

  “Well, I’m not,” Kal insisted. “Because you haven’t eaten since this morning and it’s driving me crazy.”

  Tess relented, if only because everyone seemed relieved to be taking a rest and she let Kal dote over her, sitting her down in the sand bringing her water and lunch from their supply in a larger portion than anyone else before he finally sat down beside her with a blood pack.

  They ate in companionable silence and then because he wanted to be a good mate, Kal took Tess’s feet in his lap and removed her shoes and gave her a massage. Tess was worried they’d take too long to find their way to Los Angeles, even if Cassie seemed optimistic and insisted they weren’t very far.

  “I feel like the clock is ticking,” she said to Kal, squinting at him. “Like we have to fix things, fix everything, and we have to do it quickly. Not just because of the Lucian but because…” She rubbed her stomach and he nodded. He felt it too; the pressure of some impending doom that would meet with the hope of the future. He couldn’t think of anything placating to say to comfort her. But once they were done eating, Tess stood up and took his hand. “C’mon,” she said. “Let’s go stand in the water.”

  “We Vampyrens are not used to large bodies of water,” Kal murmured as he waded ankle-deep into the surf. She’d made him take off his shoes and socks and now they stood there in the gentle tide together, hand in hand.

  “Here, stand like this…” Tess stood, facing out toward the ocean, her eyes on the horizon, and Kal followed her lead. “The waves make you feel like you’re rushing forward.”

  Kal nodded and held her hand, watching the waves come rolling in and the way the sun glimmered on the rippling blue water. There had been nothing so beautiful on Vampyr. Now he felt that sensation too and he gasped a little, rocking back on his heels as the waves washed the sand from under his feet, the endless ocean and blue of the sky seeming to swallow him, and it did feel as if they were being propelled forward to the end of the earth and into the dangerous but still promising future, hand in hand.

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