by Jools Louise
I snarled angrily at seeing this display of disrespect then witnessed something equally disturbing. Theo had brought a large group with him, vicious-looking thugs who looked like they meant business. Dark, bloody, dirty business. I hissed furiously, eyeing the large crowd of humans in the bar. Innocents who had no clue about the monsters surrounding them. I saw in Theo’s deadly gaze that his intentions here were far more than just a power play. He intended to start something, right here and right now, that one of us would probably not walk away from.
I felt a hard grip on my upper arm and then the prick of a needle. I felt a searing pain begin to spread, flowing into my bloodstream, and shot a startled look at Charles, who wore a hard and unreadable expression on his face. I was reeling, and had paid the price for my inattention to someone who had just proven his unworthiness. I felt sick that Charles was a part of this little show of strength. Charles wasn’t just part of the Paranormal Council…he was also, it would appear, Theo’s little spy stooge.
“Really, Charles?” I asked sarcastically, trying to instill as much scorn as I could into my voice. “One night in the sack and you think you’re He-Man?”
He ignored me and stood silently as Theo approached, arrogance in every step the short vampire took.
“My enforcer here tells me that you have disgraced yourself,” Theo said with a sneer. “His information leads me to believe that you are not worthy to call yourself a prince of our kind, and I have been charged by the Council to remove you from your position.”
I bit back a gasp of outrage, straightening my spine as I glared at my nemesis, feeling the paralyzing toxin in every vein now. The iron collar around my neck stopped me from calling my demon, and I was essentially helpless against what was happening. Being stripped of rank was one of the worst punishments for a vampire. It was tantamount to becoming a youngling, newly converted, and at the mercy of all types of bullying and petty pranks.
“You have no authority here,” I snarled at him, hearing screams from below stairs, utterly revolted by what was unfolding right beneath me. My coven was being attacked while I stood here conversing with the idiot Theo, my body weakening with every second. “Where is your evidence for these ridiculous slurs?”
“Charles,” Theo bit out curtly, and Charles produced a small tablet computer, which he opened up. The screen lit up, and I watched with a sinking heart as two men fucked on a bed. I was the one being skewered by the other man—Charles. I was on my hands and knees, my hair clutched in one of his big fists, being pounded like a bitch in heat.
“Doors,” Theo said, aiming the word at some of his entourage, who went to shut the large double doors to the tavern. “You are no longer the owner of the Crossroads Tavern,” he continued, smirking. “I will be taking over from here.”
Moments later, he clicked his fingers and his coven pounced on unsuspecting humans, tearing at them with claws and fangs, gorging themselves on their victims’ blood. Screams of terror erupted as the victims tried to flee but were hunted down and torn apart where they stood. I struggled out of Charles’s grasp and managed to get off several well-aimed punches and kicks, but I was quickly restrained, the poison doing its deadly deed and making my demon weak. I was beaten to the floor, which was fast becoming a sea of red, unable to shift to my demon form. The poison was paralyzing me now, my limbs growing sluggish.
“You bastard,” I snarled at Theo, knowing that if I didn’t die this day, I would hear the screams of terror until my final hours on this earth. Theo was making a statement, showing me just what a monster he truly was, with no regard for human life. The beating continued, and I valiantly fought back, lashing out at my tormenters. It was to no avail. Soon my sight blurred, my strength eventually failing, and I fell, unmoving, onto the blood-red carpet.
* * * *
Julius
I groaned, moving gingerly, feeling every one of my three thousand plus years. My headache was excruciating, signaling a lack of sustenance for some considerable time. I felt a squelch of something moist and smelly beneath me as I tried to sit up, grimacing at the pain in my joints. Where was I? What had happened to me?
The memories began to pour in then, and I flinched, trying to lift my hands to my face. I struggled to do so, my arms feeling as though they were weighed down with lead. My nostrils filled with a stench of decaying flesh and the sickly sweet odor of death. I managed to turn my head, and my vision blurred as I opened my eyes and tried to look around me, squinting through the haze obscuring my sight. I blinked a couple of times, my eyelids feeling crusty and dry, scraping uncomfortably against my eyes.
My sight was usually perfect, but half-starved as I was, it was difficult to make out individual objects in my emaciated state. Then it dawned on me that I was lying in a shallow grave, covered with several inches of dirt and leaves, sans coffin. I could just make out my companions, humans from the tavern, dismembered and disemboweled, their flesh bleeding into the earth as they decomposed. Judging by the state of them, we had all been here for months. I grimaced as I felt something small and slimy crawl along one ankle then slither off. The worms were having a feast. The earth cocooning me stank pungently of urine and blood and death. I began to panic, clawing at dirt, scrabbling around in desperation in a bid to escape my tomb. I could feel the weight of corpses atop me, their limbs clinging to mine as I struggled to break free. The scent of death was all around me.
I managed to break free of the gravesite, using what little strength I had to push upward and crawl to the surface. Exhausted, I panted heavily as I sprawled full length on the ground, scenting moss and dead leaves and decaying vegetation. I was in a forest somewhere and inhaled the sweet scent of the fresh air. I was so glad to be free that I would have cried if I could.
I felt gingerly at my neck, and realized the iron collar had been removed, which puzzled me. Why, if I was going to be left here to rot, would someone take off the one thing that could prevent me exacting revenge? Once I could call my demon, when I got my strength back, that would be the first thing I would do. I would be able to use my super speed, or power of flight and dissemination to take back what I had lost, and punish all those responsible for my loss.
Rolling onto my back I stared up at the sky, feeling a grief that seared me to my soul. I recalled the terrible scenes in those horrific last moments before I had been beaten unconscious. People being literally ripped apart, their corpses providing fodder for Theo’s horde of vicious thugs. I remembered the muted screams from below, in the club, and belatedly opened the blood call, trying to communicate with my brethren…if there were any left to communicate with. I had a nasty feeling that Theo would have slaughtered not only humans in his quest for power. My coven would never be loyal to him, as I was their sire, and they hated Theo with a vengeance.
One thing that puzzled me was why Theo had left me in the grave. He was too smart to leave me alive. Had somebody else done this? Had somebody allowed Theo to think that I had been disposed of properly? I shook my head. Theo was not authorized to kill me. He could demote me, strip me of my coven, but killing a prince without the prior approval of the Paranormal Council? Or maybe they had authorized it, and this was all part of a bigger plot. That didn’t make much sense to me, because if the Council had been behind this attack, they would just have killed me, rather than play games like this. What had been done to me was forbidden, and Theo was definitely smart enough to know he’d be eviscerated instantly should he even dare to murder me. He may have been able to justify taking my coven, given his “evidence” against me, but not killing me. Which might be the reason I was still alive. It would be easy to murder me, then make up a story that I was still alive, but the Council had some pretty skilled interrogators, and even the most skilled vampire could not block their thoughts when under the gaze of those monsters. I could not imagine the Council was behind this. I was too valuable an asset, even if they didn’t like my methods. I was a skilled negotiator and diplomat, something they needed desperately during the complex
political discussions about coven rights that stopped us from waging war against each other. This little take-over smacked of one of Theo’s sick little power plays, revenge for not pandering to his enormous ego. He would want me to live, and suffer the repercussions. Which meant that I had the advantage in this game of one-upmanship. Theo had made a big mistake by not killing me. I was sure that he had acted without authority, despite telling me that the Council had ordered my demise. He had allies on the Council, those who would do his bidding for a price but would not cross that final line into treason.
I waited, calling plaintively, urgently, over the airwaves, needing to hear that I wasn’t alone in the world. I sobbed, hurting in every part of my being as silence answered my calls. I began to give up hope, but then, faintly, I heard a reciprocal call…Mercer. He was alive. But he was in trouble. I could feel his pain, blending with mine. I needed to go, now, but needed sustenance first, or I would never make it.
I heard a rustling nearby and turned my head painfully to the side. A large stag stood watching me curiously, head tilted as it sniffed the air cautiously. I smelled the fresh blood that pulsed under its thick hide and locked my gaze with its dark brown one. It stood quietly, hypnotized, and I crawled carefully toward it. I would have to make do with venison until I found a more appealing meal.
Kneeling with some effort, I grabbed hold of the animal’s leg and hauled myself to a standing position, using its body for balance. I stared into its soft eyes and then turned its massive head to the side, slicing a small cut into its throat before placing my mouth against the oozing wound, drinking greedily. The blood tasted a little strange, gamey but not unpleasant, and I fed quickly. My thirst slaked, I eased away, licking at the wound until it began to close. I patted the animal’s neck gently, thanking it for its gift, and felt my strength returning in spades.
I opened the call again and homed in on the distant reply. Mercer was somewhere south of where I was…and I still had no clue as to my location. I looked at my shredded clothes and wrinkled my nose in distaste. My jeans were a bloody mess, ripped up from the claws that had gouged me during the epic battle with Theo’s goons. My shirt had disappeared, and my chest bore the marks of boots and fists, fading rapidly now that I had fed from my four-legged friend. I was a vampire, so I didn’t feel too uncomfortable wearing next to nothing but was fairly irritated that I’d been slung into a hole in the ground and then covered over with dirt. I imagined that Theo had delivered this final insult deliberately. My boots had even been removed, my feet bare on the cold ground, which had a light dusting of snow. I hissed angrily.
Somebody would pay for what had happened. Theo and his coven would be burned to dust for daring to usurp me, for daring to send a traitor into my bed. I flinched at that last thought. Charles had been…something. I don’t know what. He had been somebody who had flown right under my radar as far as traitorous behavior was concerned, and I had been betrayed. It wouldn’t hurt so much except I had felt…something for him. A connection. Respect. I had thought I could trust him. How could I have been so wrong about his character?
I began to walk barefoot through the forest, finding animal trails to make the going easier, heading south toward Mercer. I didn’t want Theo to know that I was revived, and despite my urgency, I knew that if I used my super speed or dissemination ability, it would alert him. I was too weak at the moment to use them without draining me again completely. So I would walk, and try to find a human blood donor to make me strong again, then I would be able to run without fearing my stamina would fade too quickly. So far, Mercer was the only one to answer my call. I felt tears trickle down my face at the thought that my family, my most precious coven, were now all dead. Someone would pay for that. I would make sure of it.
Chapter Four
Mercer
I felt a scream building in my tortured throat as the next punishing lash sliced into my abused flesh but bit back the sound. I was a warrior, had been a gladiator in the arenas of Rome. I would not cry out and show these bastards any weakness. Strung up like a side of beef, I had the pleasure of being guest of honor at one of Theo’s little soirees. It was an uncomfortable position, to be sure, and involved a large group of Theo’s thugs using various implements to whip, beat, and torture me over several torturous hours. I had lost count of how much time had passed, but I found comfort from the fact that I had finally connected with Julius.
It had been months since the bloodbath at the Crossroads Tavern, which was now a burnt-out ruin, courtesy of Theodore the Moron. I now had hope, having received my beloved sire’s call, that things would be okay. I had been kept in isolation for months, not knowing what had become of my coven, only feeling the pain of grief that they had been murdered by Theo. I had called, but to no avail. I had assumed that all was lost. The optimism that had been all but extinguished during my months of torture was now burning brightly. I knew that Theo had no clue that Julius was alive and relished the idea of the final showdown between the two, one on one, when Julius came for payback. Theo had neglected to block my thoughts since he assumed Julius to be dead.
Julius and I had been together for over two thousand years, and he had been a powerful vampire even then. He had saved me from a manmade hell in the gladiator pits of Rome where I would have certainly perished before a baying crowd. He had arrived in the dead of night, removing me from my dungeon, and taken me to his bed and his heart and eventually into his coven. I had been stripped of everything, a big African warrior who liked men as well as women. A thing that was forbidden by my people, and so they had ostracized me. I had been cast out into the desert until I had been captured by a band of slavers.
I had fallen in love with Julius for his kindness and gentleness when I had been so weak that I had nearly died. He had tended me, healed me, and made love to me in so many ways, showing me a whole new world of tenderness that I had never known before. He had then offered me a choice, an alternative to what I had endured, and had promised me forever if I wished to spend an eternity with him, forming his coven.
I had not been afraid then, only in awe of this man of average height, but with the biggest heart…even if it didn’t beat in the way a human’s would. Julius was a different type of vampire, one who cared for his people and chose his coven carefully, wanting a family, not just blind loyalty. I had accepted his offer willingly, our lovemaking that night exquisitely beautiful as he blended our blood together, turning me, killing me, and then bringing me back to eternal life. I was stronger, faster, and more powerful than ever before. And I had given my unending loyalty and love to Julius.
“Lock him away, now,” Theo commanded, interrupting my musings as my beating ceased. “He’s stopped amusing me, now.”
I groaned unwillingly as I was unstrapped from the cross I had been bound to and dragged by my arms across the huge grand hall of Theo’s fifty-bedroom mansion in rural Massachusetts, two hundred miles from our old tavern, which was close to Boston, a far more civilized society. My guards half carried me down to the dank basement that stank of unwashed, fetid bodies. Groans and cries from the miserable wretches kept here reached my ears, and as I passed one of the cells, I spied the long pale locks of a woman who Julius and I had shared, lovingly, the last time I had seen my sire. Eva had been due for conversion, had been marked by Julius. During the battle for the club, when Theo had invaded our inner sanctum, she had been caught in the crossfire. I had seen the brutality she had experienced, Theo’s morons giving her no quarter as they kept her as their blood and sex slave. I was surprised she still lived. I met her gaze, saw the misery and despair in it, and knew she clung on by a thread.
I cried out when one of my guards kicked me in the ribs, feeling the crunch of broken bone as my rib fractured on impact.
“She’s not for you, peasant,” the guard said viciously, kicking me again.
I snarled at him angrily, earning another blow. My temper snapped abruptly, and I lunged at him, my claws digging into his leg. My fangs descended, and I bit
deep, cutting through leather to get to the thick veins there, getting vital fluids as my bite hit paydirt and I ripped into his femoral artery. He screamed in pain, his companion trying to drag me off. When used to attack, a vampire’s bite produced none of the usual blends of chemicals that produced euphoria during a feed or sex. Instead, it was more like acid had been injected straight into the vein. I ignored the heavy blows, feeling my strength return, my wounds healing as the blood infusion did its thing. I turned on the second guard then, ripping out his throat with my claws, then drinking from him, as well. In a final act of brutality, I decapitated each vampire, watching dispassionately as they instantly turned to dust.
“Mercer,” a small voice said. I looked over to where Eva sat staring at me, her pale blue eyes wide.
“Let us leave this place,” I said, retrieving a set of keys from the guards and unlocking Eva’s cell. I gathered her close, feeling how thin she had become, seeing how pale her skin was.
“Convert me,” she begged. “I want to be strong like you. I want Theo dead. Don’t let me stay human, please.” I stared into her haunted eyes and placed my mouth against her soft, pale rose lips, offering comfort.
“Let us leave here first,” I told her, stroking her cheek.
She shuddered once and then nodded. I grabbed her by the hand and gently tugged her out of the cell, letting her lean on me as she staggered slightly, her body weak and undernourished. I took my time to leave, unlocking each of the cells as I went along the long corridor, which stretched for some two hundred yards. The last two held a welcome surprise. Our coven was not dead after all. Theo, in his arrogance, had left them alive. That would be his undoing. Silas, Connie, Aaron, Daniel, Sven, and Milly, our inner circle, were all housed together in one cell, along with half of the rest of our clan. In the second cell I found the others, minus six. I realized why they had not answered my call, and yet had been so close.
