THE VAMPIRES
SHARED BRIDE
A VAMPIRE MENAGE ROMANCE
BONNIE BURROWS
Copyright ©2015 by Bonnie Burrows
All rights reserved.
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About This Book
Vampires Valad and Michael control the town and every ten years they pick a fertile woman from the village to be wedded to them as part of a tradition that dates back to over a century.
No one knows what happens to the women once they are chosen and, quite frankly, no one wants to know. The simple fact is, they are never seen again.
When curvy Siona discovers that her newly engaged best friend is the next girl to have been selected she does what no woman has ever done before. Siona volunteers herself to be chosen and to take her friends place.
Now she is about to enter the unknown with no idea if she will ever return...
When Siona volunteered to become the Vampire's shared bride she had absolutely no idea of what was to happen.
And there is nothing in this world that could have prepared her for what actually DID happen......
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER ONE
Prologue
1882
Valad was lounging on a red velvet couch in his bedroom, letting Ilana’s blond curls flow through his ring-clad fingers. Running his tongue over one pointed incisor, he considered himself already hungry for more of Ilana’s blood and body. Valad was about to suggest they retire to the bedroom when Ilana suddenly bolted from his lap. Taken aback, Valad was slow to move after his mistress and, despite his paranormal speed, Ilana beat Valad to the bathroom.
Valad entered the room right behind her and gathered Ilana’s long blonde ringlets in his hands as she was sick over a wastebasket.
“Are you alright, my love?” Valad asked, watching helplessly as Ilana fought being sick. He tried to smell her to see if she had the lingering scent of the flu in her system.
Ilana’s blood had tasted a little different for a while now, but the flu had been taking its victims far faster than that, a matter of days rather than the month or more Ilana’s blood had been slowly changing.
Finished, Ilana sat back and Valad offered her a cold compress. “Thank you Valad, I don’t know what’s come over me. I’ve felt awful for weeks.”
Valad frowned and stroked her forehead with a gentle hand. “You should see a doctor.”
Ilana waved him off, “I haven’t left the house in weeks. Not with the flu that is being passed around this winter. I have no desire to end up dead or undead, thank you very much. I like my heart beating.” Ilana smirked up at Valad and took his hand to stand again.
“You, my dear, are a horribly prejudiced individual and a hypocrite at that. Need I remind you my own heart hasn’t beat for hundreds of years?”
“If you’re my example of what a vampire does with his existence then I think I’ll pass.” Ilana walked past Valad clad in only a corset. His eyes followed every swing and sway of her hips. Turning around, Ilana continued teasingly, “knowing each day could be my last adds some spice to my life; it gives me motivation to do all I can while I’m still alive.”
Valad quirked an eyebrow, “You don’t think I do all I can with my undead life?”
Ilana allowed Valad to drape her over the couch they had been sprawled out on earlier. Taking up her fan, Ilana waved it slowly back and forth, “I think you do all the women you can, but the life of a male gigolo is a very shallow one, indeed.”
“Funny, I’ve never heard you complain before,” Valad said, pausing to nip at Ilana’s diamond clad earlobe.
Ilana’s pale hand reached up to his alabaster skin as she relented. “I’m sorry my love, I’m just being testy. But I think I need a few minutes to close my eyes. I’ve just been so tired lately.”
“Of course, my sweet.”
Valad took a moment to drape Ilana in a colorful woven blanket from Italy, a prize he’d picked long before his mistress had been born. Laying it over Ilana’s sleeping form, Valad slowly backed out of the bedroom and moved silently down the hall to his library. Once the door was locked behind him, Valad paced around the space as if he didn’t know exactly who he was about to contact.
Some things simply couldn’t be avoided. Valad knew Ilana hadn’t left the house in about a month and the month before that, they had gone out rarely. On and off, she had been feeling sick and the foreign taste in her blood had grown stronger. It chilled Valad to the bone to think she could be sick, if not with the flu, than with one of the many other slow killers Valad had seen take his human friends and lovers in his almost two hundred years as a vampire.
Sitting down under an oil painting that had been done of him a century earlier, Valad felt every inch of his two hundred years. He had been told the painting was a good likeness of him and so he kept it, as he could no longer see himself in a mirror. The painting depicted a man in his mid-twenties, so fair of skin it was nearly translucent. His smile and bright green eyes were topped with a mop of blond hair that curled dashingly over his ears and collar. It had been far too long for the fashion of the time, but Valad loved to keep it a little long. It reminded him of the wilder time in this world when his heart still beat.
Valad sighed, Ilana may have a point; with the loss of a beating heart, a vampire could also begin to lose a reason for living. Mistresses were fun for a while, fulfilling even, after he had started to keep them for a decade at a time. Yet, even with all of the companionship, Valad still felt hollow. He didn’t know if he had ever found true love or if he had become jaded.
Picking up a quill and a fresh piece of paper, Valad sat down to write his friend Michael. The vampire had been a one-time lover of Valad’s and a doctor. Michael was one of a handful of vampires Valad would be willing to invite into his inner sanctum. A vampire’s welcome, once given, was almost impossible to revoke, giving the other creature free reign to enter the home whenever they wished. Ilana may not be the love of Valad’s life, but she meant enough to him that he was willing to sully the previously pure entry way of his current London home.
Something was wrong with her and they needed to get to the bottom of it.
***
Michael was surprised when Valad’s missive arrived at his lab. It was highly unusual for one vampire to invite another into their home, even if they were old friends. Michael was tempted to ignore the letter, to stay buried in his lab work but shortly after dusk the following day, Michael found himself walking up the foggy London street, searching for number 301. As he approached the house, a door opened and warm light spilled out into the grey night. A voice he hadn’t heard for years called out into the night, loud enough for even humans to hear.
“Cheerio, old chap!”
Michael couldn’t he
lp but smile, but replied in a quiet voice that only Valad and his sensitive ears could hear, “Is that how they greet people in Romania?”
Valad came into view as Michael walked up the steps to the townhouse. Standing at the boundary line for Valad’s London home, Michael waited for the official welcome.
“I wouldn’t know how they greet people in Romania, I’ve been here for too many years.” Valad’s smile slipped and Michael watched the usually joyful vampire’s face become a mask of seriousness. “Ilana is ill. She’s been nauseous for two months now and deathly tired. I live in fear of the flu or worse...hardening of the veins is an awful way to go,” he finished quietly.
Michael nodded and waited. He knew even for an old friend, extending a vampire welcome was a difficult proposition.
Valad sighed, “Well, Michael, there is nothing left to do; I welcome you to my home.” The formal words lifted the unseen force keeping Michael from entering number 301. Both vampires could sense Michael was now free and Valad seemed relieved. “Please follow me, Ilana is in the back.”
Michael followed Valad through his home. The space seemed to be curated from world travels, something an immortal was bound to do over the years. Expensive antiques were layered with modern accents in a way that welcomed a person to sit back and relax. It was a happy place so the chill coming off Valad seemed more foreign in the space than the Chinese scroll Michael had just passed.
At the entrance to the bedroom, Valad paused and whispered, “Michael, I care for this woman. She has only been with me for a few years now and I would very much like to see her survive the next decade.”
Michael nodded stiffly and responded quietly, “I’ll give her the best care I can.”
Valad nodded his assent and opened the door to Ilana.
***
An hour later, Valad and Michael were sitting in Valad’s library staring at each other over a stiff glass of whiskey. It wasn’t clear if the drink was celebratory or funereal.
“Are you sure the woman isn’t a liar?”
Valad’s stare could’ve killed if Michael weren’t already dead. “Yes Michael, I’m sure she’s not lying. The woman hasn’t left my side in almost two years. But still, it’s not possible, right?”
Michael stared into the amber liquid in his glass. He had always preferred the strong ales of his Irish homeland, but after a night like tonight, well, anything alcoholic would do.
“No, I can’t say it’s impossible. Rare and not documented very well, however, there are tales of human women who can carry a child to term. Not all women, or all male vampires for that matter, are fertile for this process but I can’t say that it’s impossible.” Michael punctuated his statement by downing the shot in his hands.
The men were quiet for a minute. Not a breath or a facial twitch between them as they sat as still as the dead, until a bright grin overcame Valad’s face, “So you’re saying I could be a father. A real biological father?”
Michael was in awe of the wonder in Valad’s voice. It was more emotional than he had heard in a vampire’s voice in a long time. Usually, it was only newly turned vampires that had that kind of sincerity. Undead eternity had a way of burning that out of a person, the injection of new life seemed to nullify the numbness.
Michael smiled in return, “Yes my friend, god willing, you are going to be a father.”
***
When all was said and done, Michael’s time with Valad and Ilana was some of the most thrilling of his life. Always a scientist by nature, Ilana’s pregnancy held the possibility of him being the first doctor to document a vampire-human pregnancy from almost start to finish.
Things had been going so well, until they weren’t. Valad’s fears of sickness had come to fruition: a maid, or perhaps Valad or Michael, brought death to Ilana. They were never sure where the flu had come from. Even the wrong piece of fruit would’ve been enough to spread the virus. Whatever it was, just as Ilana should’ve been exiting the period of morning sickness, she came down with terrible nausea again.
At first, Michael just thought that it was a final resurgence of the morning sickness that so many women experience before it finally broke for good. But when Ilana’s fever rose quickly along with the nausea, Michael knew something was wrong. Two days later, both Ilana and the baby had passed. Ilana refused to be turned by either Michael or Valad.
Michael and Valad mourned together for years. They became inseparable in their grief for all they had lost. Together, they traveled the world trying to lose themselves in women and medical mysteries, respectively. Eventually, they found their way to the Americas. The land was free and wild in comparison to the culture of Europe and the vampires found themselves reinvigorated by the place. Finally, they settled on a tract of land around a small village in what would become New York State.
The town came with its own mysteries and danger and the people of the area were all too happy to allow Michael and Valad to defend them against it and in return, sacrifice a soul. As the years passed and the threat stayed neutralized, newer generations began to forget why they offered up a young woman every ten years to the vampires. Yet, the tradition continued to thrive and the vampires continued to search...
CHAPTER TWO
Present Day
Siona Radku had the feeling she was standing on the precipice of greatness. Walking around the small studio space in her parent’s home, Siona just knew something big was about to happen. Stopping in front of the large picture window, she willed her mind to quiet and waited for the beautiful light streaming in the space to calm her. Siona really needed to focus on finishing her current art piece before she left the studio today. After today’s big Event, Siona was heading to New York City, a cramped loft, and a few modest contracts from indie art galleries. Life was going to be good once she was free to leave her hometown.
Feeling excitement move up her spine, Siona flipped her long dark hair over her shoulders and padded barefoot over to the canvas leaning on the only easel left in the space. The room felt so empty with all of her art supplies and inspirations packed up in the uhaul in the driveway. Sitting on the barstool, Siona tucked a foot up underneath her long white maxi dress and considered the landscape in front of her. It was a swirling mix of burnt orange, deep red and sage green that gave the impression of falling leaves and grape vines heavy with juicy fruit. A lawyer from New York City had commissioned a large piece of fall in the Finger Lakes vineyards. It was supposed to go over the entrance to his wine cellar after being displayed during a fundraising gala. Siona hoped The Event would garner her a few more commissions.
She was down to the final touches, adding a highlight here, a lowlight there. In all honesty, Siona was just fiddling with it to bide her time until The Event this afternoon. By eight o’clock today, Siona would finally be free to pursue her dreams. Well, she would be able to pursue her life. The dream would be to find a cottage in the woods with a light filled room to advance her painting career. The reality was a broom closet of a loft in NYC where Siona would duel it out with other starving artists. The dream of communing with nature would have to wait till Siona was famous or won the lottery. Though, nothing in life inspired her as much as being surrounded by nature.
Siona realized she was staring out the window into nothingness, gripping a paint splattered brush in her hand, it’s pigment slowly drying on the brush’s strands. Blinking at the canvas, she decided to give up. It was done, there was nothing more to do; it was no longer a good excuse to waste time. Siona checked her watch and stood to package the still wet piece for transport. It was a bittersweet moment, as it would be the last piece Siona finished before her life changed. Before she became an adult.
The banging of the screen door of the kitchen stopped Siona from continuing to tread down the path of melancholy. A voice calling out “hello,” lifted her spirits.
“Siona, Siiioooona? Where are you?”
Siona laughed, “Where do you think I am, Kayla?”
Kayla walked through the doo
r in sky-high purple wedges and a white dress of her own, though it wasn’t the traditional floor length dress Siona had opted for. Siona was always a little envious of Kayla’s brash refusal to follow the rules. Siona was a rule-follower to her core.
Glossy lips parted in a smile, “Sequestered in your cave of course! God, aren’t you beyond excited to get a change of scenery? Just think of the energy in the city, it’s going to be inspiring, I just know it!”
Siona wrapped her best friend in a hug. The girls hadn’t gone more than a day without seeing each other since Kayla deemed Siona her soul mate at the tender age of six.
“Well it’s going to be inspiring for you anyway. The street fashion alone is going to be enough to blow up your blog. Not to mention an MFA from NYU.”
Kayla gave a dramatic wave of her hand, “Stop, you’re going to make me blush.”
Siona laughed as she continued packaging her painting, thinking that the purple hair had been a good choice for her bestie – it set off her coffee colored Native American skin and cheekbones to perfection. Siona would have killed for either, but her milky complexion and lush curves tended toward milkmaid rather than Native American warrior.
Finished, Siona looked up at Kayla quizzically. “Why are you still waving your hand like that? You’re going to get carpal tunnel or something. You’ll never write again,” she teased dramatically.
“Seriously Siona? Look. Closer.”
Siona narrowed her eyes and looked Kayla up and down, but it wasn’t until the light glinted off of something small and shiny that she understood.
Eyes widening she looked back at Kayla, “Oh my god. He finally asked you?”
“Yes!” Ear-splitting squealing filled the room and the girls danced around in a circle, hugging and jumping for joy; Kayla’s hand still moving side to side in excitement.
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