Austin's Lost Bride (The Sterns)

by Mindi Winters

  She saw her father, dressed in the suit he wore for her wedding, blood stains covering the front. A thrall stood a few feet in front of him and another dead at his side, but he was chained like she was and couldn’t move. The wound on his neck was throbbing red and even in this memory she could feel the rage of the beast roll off him. He was a vampire now. Mannus must have turned him and fed him the now dead thrall as his first victim. She couldn’t bear to look and turned away.

  Fighting was going on in the compound and she could hear gunshots ring out. The door to the room broke down and Mannus crashed through it with Austin and another hunter following him. The hunter fired three rounds at him but Mannus evaded, the bullets shattering the windows behind her father. Before he could aim again, Mannus had struck with his claws, ripping the hunter’s throat out. He clutched his hands against the open wound and dropped to the floor, slowly dying.

  Worry for Austin grabbed her, but Rebecca knew this was a memory and he would survive so she pushed it aside. She glanced again at her father knowing she couldn’t save him, anger and frustration swelling in her as Austin moved farther into the room. Stepping around his fallen friend, he moved more cautiously. He moved into a fighting stance while grasping his own fighting knives. They weren’t as magical as hers, but they were still effective weapons. She could see his plan. Fight defensively to a draw until some more hunters could arrive and then take Mannus together as a group.

  Austin was a skilled hunter and against Mannus alone, it might have worked, but he had a thrall with him and an easy escape route. The fight against him was hopeless.

  She looked again at her chained father and then at Austin. She didn’t know why her father was still chained, he was a vampire and had the power to break them but he hadn’t. It was hard to imagine how broken her father’s spirit must have become to let himself stay chained as he did. If her real body was here, she knew she’d be crying for her father about to die, and the love she wasted on Austin.

  She wanted to leave this memory and go anywhere else. Then they moved. Mannus and his thrall attacked first with Mannus striking with his claws while the thrall pulled out a gun. Austin rolled with Mannus’s attack, thrusting his weapons back at the vampire causing him to pull back slightly. Austin used precious seconds to turn to the thrall and throw one of the knives at him. It flew through the air and struck the thrall in the shoulder, sending him falling back into the chair holding her father.

  Rebecca’s felt herself go cold and could see it was a mistake. Austin had turned away from the more dangerous foe to tackle the thrall and a brief moment is sometimes all a vampire needs to take you down. Austin tried to turn back quickly enough but Mannus’s claws were already raking down his other arm, taking all the strength from it. Austin screamed but held his knife; there was something in his eyes, a fury that she had never seen before and it kept him standing.

  Rebecca was trying to make sense of what she was seeing in this memory; she didn’t understand. Austin should have died that night. His fighting arm was wounded and if he tried to switch hands then Mannus would be on him. He didn’t have a chance anymore. She could hear the other hunters fighting, but they were still far enough off that they couldn’t help him in time. How had he survived the fight to drive Mannus off?

  The sound of metal tearing snapped all their attention back to her father. Her father still had his mouth on the thrall’s neck as he stood up. Grabbing Austin’s knife from the thrall’s shoulder with one hand and tossing the thrall aside with the other, her father lunged at Mannus. He moved with all the blinding speed of any vampire and slashed the knife down Mannus’s chest. Mannus roared as a small amount of smoke started to rise from her father’s knife hand and he struck again. This time Mannus dodged the blow, but now the vampire was outnumbered, and Austin stuck from behind, driving his knife into Mannus’s shoulder. Blood poured out of his chest wound and Mannus slashed at both of them with his claws. Turning around and running through the room, he jumped through the window and escaped into the night.

  Rebecca could feel the vision begin to end as Mannus regained control of his mind in the present world, but Rebecca steeled her concentration and remained in the memory vision. Nothing had happened like she expected. She needed to know how it ended.

  She moved closer to Austin and her father. The smoke was rising more rapidly off his hand now and was clearly burnt. He handed the blade to Austin.

  “Here, finish me off, before it’s too late,” he said.

  “I … I can’t. Another hunter can do it. Rebecca would never forgive me,” said Austin.

  Rebecca moved around to stand in front of her father.

  “You don’t understand, that thrall was my first kill. Mannus killed the other one. I can feel the beast devouring my soul. You have to finish me now while I still have a chance.”

  Rebecca looked to see her father’s face more clearly and it was his eyes that broke her heart. Human eyes that were rapidly turning into the cold, killer eyes of a vampire. His soul was being eaten in front of her. She turned her head to see Austin look at her father in horror. Shaking his head in refusal.

  She saw her father begin to cry his last tears, the light of his soul almost gone from his eyes and she knew what she would have done. She looked at the vision of Austin.

  “Pleeeassseee,” she said.

  Mannus had reasserted himself in the present and the vision began to fade as she saw Austin drive the knife through her father’s heart then fall to his knees in tears over his body.

  The vision had lasted only a heartbeat in real time and her blood was still spilling out into Mannus’s mouth. She had no strength to fight back any longer. Her shock was too deep. The vampire finished the turning and then hit her across the face.

  “Never invade my mind again.”

  He turned away and headed up the stairs.

  Rebecca sat alone again. Everything she had believed was wrong. Austin killed her father out of love and hope that he could still reach heaven. She hadn’t listened, didn’t even give him a chance to explain. Now it was too late for them and any life they might have had together. She would become a vampire and he was going to die. He was coming to save her in a hopeless rescue mission and when he was captured he was to be her first kill to complete the turning. They’d be listening to her upstairs, but she didn’t care as tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks.

  Chapter 5

  He made it by dusk and Austin parked the beaten up Ford Escape that he was forced to steal. He should have felt bad about stealing a car, but he didn’t. The note had given him little time and he needed to get more supplies at another safe location he knew. Going against Mannus completely unprepared wasn’t something he intended to do. Even if he expected to die.

  He looked down the street to the house he was told to go. Perfect for a vampire in need of healing, he thought. It was a practically abandoned area of the city, with a half dozen homes crumbling, and the same number clearly vacant on this block alone. The other nearby streets were the same, a precious few homes with people living in them scattered around a vast urban wasteland, forgotten by authorities. No one would answer a call for help here. As he stepped out of the car and went to the trunk for his weapons, the smell drifting through the street of blood, death, and rotting garbage hit him. His stomach lurched and then he forced it still.

  The beast was in Rebecca, he felt a blow to his soul and a cry of pain from her in his mind when it happened. He knew she was lost to him. Her heart was lost to him before, but now her humanity and soul were in danger. He started gathering his weapons, including Rebecca’s dagger, and finished mentally preparing himself when he felt the first tickle on his skin warning him he was being watched.

  No surprises there. He already knew it was a trap and he was going to die. Mannus’s MO was to have the victims he turned kill a loved one for their first blood. He wouldn’t kill Austin outright. Mannus would try to keep him alive for Rebecca to kill and that gave him his chance to save her b
efore her soul was destroyed.

  He loved her more than he could love any other woman. Any lies that he may have told himself that he could get over her were gone now. Rebecca could feel otherwise, but she would always be his true love. It’s why he was here and he was going to honor that love the same way he honored her father when Mannus had turned him. He was going to save her if he could, kill her if he couldn’t, and probably die along the way.

  There was no other way.

  He grabbed the last, most important weapon from the car and smiled at the surprise he was giving them. His senses warned him they were watching still and he started walking toward the house. They’d expect him to be stealthy and try a rescue, but that wasn’t his plan. Using stealth he couldn’t win alone against multiple thralls and Mannus, who somehow was still strong after last night. That left brute force as his only surprise strategy.

  His senses exploded with alarm and he realized they knew what he was going to do. He heard several shouts of warning and he brought his weapon to his shoulder. Austin peered down the barrel of a multi-shot police teargas gun and quickly unloaded two into the house before pivoting and putting the last four on either side of the house and across the street.

  He heard shouting in the house and then gunshots start ringing out of a crumbling home nearby, the aim wildly off mark through the spreading teargas. Pulling the pin from a grenade, Austin threw it toward the shooter. He gave a smug smile as it exploded, killing the thrall.

  That’s for taking Rebecca.

  Austin slipped on his mask before the teargas enveloped him and started moving closer to the house, intending to make his way around back. The sound of breaking furniture focused his attention to the front door as a thrall came crashing through it, gasping for air. One bullet through his head ended him before he even looked up or raised his own weapon.

  Two down. How many more were there?

  Austin didn’t know, but he kept moving to the side of the house and around back. He had tried looking through the basement windows as he moved but they were sealed and the basement was where Rebecca was most likely being held. No other thralls challenged him but he could hear movement inside as he made his way to the back door.

  Teargas filled the surrounding area, hanging on the ground waiting for any wind to blow it away. Everything was silent, no guns shooting, no sirens wailing. The police, if they were coming, were still very far away.

  His heart was pounding, the adrenalin of the moment giving him hope that he’d succeed in saving Rebecca and living himself. He knew not to get ahead of himself. Thralls were easy, but there was still a two-thousand-year-old vampire to fight and that might not go so well. Standing next to the rear door, preparing himself, Austin made a quick wish, turned, and went inside.

  Austin let out five rounds as a bullet shattered the door frame next to his head, fragments of wood cutting his face. Standing on the rear landing and looking down the basement staircase he saw a dead thrall sprawled out on the floor, blood slowly pooling around his body. He looked up the half landing to the main floor leading into the kitchen and the teargas was held back at the door frame by some magic. His instinct told him the upper floor was empty now and he should focus on danger in the basement.

  His gun ready, he drew a knife with his free hand, and started moving down the staircase. The stench of death was stronger as he went and after going down a few stairs Rebecca came into view. She was bound tight in chains, a thrall standing behind her with one hand over her mouth and another with a gun to her head. They both watched him, their eyes never wavering. Austin kept moving down the stairs and aimed for the thrall, but held off on firing. He wouldn’t miss and accidentally hit Rebecca, but he wasn’t taking any chances of acting too quickly. Now he was in maximum danger, when any traps left would soon be sprung.

  Where was Mannus?

  The vampire still hadn’t made his appearance. He was at the foot of the stairs, the dead thrall just in front of him. His eyes locked with Rebecca and a shudder went through him as he searched for any clue to where Mannus was hiding, any sign of warning, or even the slightest hint of feeling for him in her gaze. Her eyes held worry, fear, compassion, but most of all, the beast. It raged in her battling her soul for dominance, her eyes shifting from nearly human to beast. She still hadn’t killed and his face filled with resolve that he could still save her.

  He stepped over the dead thrall and entered the room, his gun never leaving sight of the thrall’s head. Corpses laid against the wall to his left, but he felt no trace of the vampire.

  He has to be here.

  In an instant Austin felt his arms began to go numb like death itself was running his hand over his skin and cold swept throughout his entire body. Next to Rebecca a red light began to pulse suspended in the air.

  The trap sprung, his mind exploded as his fighting instinct worked to take over, but his body wouldn’t move. The light illuminated a blood talisman, pulsing stronger and faster with every beat of his heart. The cold in his body became a feeling of ice in his veins, freezing him in place. The light glowed steady and Mannus appeared before him.

  The thrall by Rebecca pulled away from her, smiling widely. Rebecca looked horrified.

  “Austin, I’m sorry,” she sobbed.

  Only his eyes could move now, every other part of his body held frozen by magic from the blood talisman. He held his panic down, thinking quickly. The talisman was powerful magic against a single person, but only if that person’s blood was inside it. But Austin didn’t get injured the other night. How could Mannus have gotten his blood? Did Rebecca betray him? Was that why she apologized? He expected a heroic final fight but not this.

  Rebecca seemed to know what he was thinking.

  “It wasn’t me,” she said. “You bled during the fight five years ago. Mannus saved some of it. He told me just before you came.”

  Rebecca tried to speak again, “Austin, I …”

  “Enough!” said Mannus and the thrall yanked Rebecca’s head back, forcefully closing her mouth with his hand under his chin.

  Mannus grabbed Austin and began tossing all his weapons and Rebecca’s dagger aside. The dagger singed him as he touched it but he still smiled. “Once she becomes a vampire the last potential bearer of that accursed weapon will be gone. It will turn to dust and none of my kind will be threatened by it again.”

  Mannus moved closer to him and whispered, “She is beautiful, isn’t she. Once she becomes my vampire child, I think I shall make her my mate too. She won’t be able to resist once she turns. Think about us as lovers for millennia as your beloved takes your life. Good-bye, hunter.”

  Mannus pulled away and grabbed Austin by the neck, bringing him closer to Rebecca. She was thrashing frantically, trying to break free from the thrall and chains in vain. A single swipe of his finger and Mannus made a small cut along Austin’s neck, blood slowly trickling out of it. Mannus ran a finger over the wound, gathering a bit of blood.

  “Doesn’t he smell sweet, child?” said Mannus as he ran the bloody finger over Rebecca’s lips.

  The beast within her roared.

  Rebecca’s head split as the beast prepared itself for the blood of her first kill. She wanted to scream out in protest, stop herself, but she couldn’t. The scent of his blood was powerful and her tongue leaped out of her mouth to clean and taste every drop running from his neck. As Mannus pushed Austin’s neck closer to her, she felt her fangs growing in anticipation.

  Anyone but Austin, her mind screamed.

  The beast charged through her thoughts and instantly forced her tongue to lick his wound, tasting even more of his precious blood. Her entire body shook at the saltiness of blood mixed with sweat.

  The beast wanted more.

  Every inch of her soul stood firm against the beast, but it had tasted what it most desired and in his next heartbeat she pierced his skin and began to drink.

  Vampiric strength flowed through her body as his blood began to fill her and in an instant she ripped
away the chains that bound her. Her hands went to Austin, to push him away from her but the beast surged against her will and instead she moved to hold him in a tight embrace. She cradled his head in her hand, slowing only briefly how quickly she drank.

  “You cannot resist the beast, child,” said Mannus.

  Rebecca was frantic. Only her training gave her any ability to think even irrationally. By now, any normal person would have completely surrendered to the beast and ripped Austin’s neck apart to get his blood. Her body was acting completely on instinct, ruled by the beast and once Austin’s heart had beat the last time then the beast would turn on and devour her soul. Under her hands she felt Austin begin to shake, the loss of blood slowly beginning to weaken him. She began stroking his head, running her hands through his hair, feeling the rise and fall of his chest as she held him and fought against the beast’s urge for her to drink quickly.

  It couldn’t end like this. Austin couldn’t die. She couldn’t be the one to kill him.

  She loved him.

  Everything happened in the space of a heartbeat. Her toes felt it first. A friendly warmth seeping into her feet. It reached up past her foot, moving up her legs, almost tickling her as it climbed into her chest. Surrounding her heart it swept down her arms, into her hand, and up through her head. Filling her body with the sensation, she had no fear as it collapsed on her heart and when it finally touched her soul she knew what it was.

  Love.

  Pure and unconditional. Her parents had come to help her and let her know that her father was all right. Their love roared through her with the force of a bursting dam, striking the beast back, then through her hands into Austin, warming him and breaking the talisman’s hold.